Ballona Watershed Community Stewardship Climate Connection
Organization: Nature Nexus Institute
Nature Nexus Institute is founded on the belief that reciprocity between communities and nature is essential to the survival of both.
Location: Los Angeles, Culver City
Communities benefiting directly from the project: South Los Angeles, Culver City
Country: United States
Other Organizations Involved: Nature Nexus Institute will partner with the Bresee Youth Center which serves recently arrived, unaccompanied minors, grades 9-12. Additional youth will be recruited from West Los Angeles College via the free Conservation Studies Program developed and led by NNI staff. The program aims to build relationships and community through high-quality youth development activities connecting youth to environmental education activities and pathways to internship opportunities in environmental stewardship.
Overall, the project will directly engage nearly 2,000 people via student activities and monthly community climate resiliency events.
@ Nature Nexus Institute
Background
Many people in the heart of urban Los Angeles may not have a deep-rooted connection to parks or open space due to financial or transportation barriers. Cultivating a link between people and greenspaces opens the possibility for a more equitable, diverse and inclusive voice in the environmental movement. Nature Nexus Institute’s program provides naturalist training and work experience to high school and college interns. Interns are an integral part of the education program and are representative of our organization's broader goal of creating a more diverse and younger demographic within the environmental movement.
Goals
- Grow a new generation of environmental leaders.
- Connect with diverse youth and community members in advancing climate resiliency in Los Angeles.
- Provide bus transportation for nature education field trips.
- Seek a greater connection to local nature through stewardship that supports climate resiliency and a healthy environment where nature and people can thrive.
Main activities
- Provide 75 youth per year with weekly after-school environmental stewardship training/internships.
- Support students in enviro literacy writing and creation of bi-annual newsletter.
- Host 22 Ecology tours for approximately 1100 students (grades 3-8) at nature sites in Los Angeles.
- Lead monthly community habitat restoration/education events.
- Partner with the Bresee Youth Center and lead youth in 8 nature stewardship activities.
Expected outcomes
Students and community members acquire the capacity to restore native habitat and gain job and leadership skills. The habitat restoration will provide conservation benefits to thousands of people in the surrounding communities, improving ecosystem health and function (increased stormwater infiltration, increased carbon sequestration, improved slope stabilization, reduced fire fuel loads), increasing species biodiversity and increasing climate resiliency (increased water capture, increased resiliency to extreme weather events). Youth share knowledge and community input through the creation of a bi-annual newsletter and social media postings. Their work will serve to amplify community-climate resiliency.